Patience

Day 58. Patience.

Something I never had much of was patience. The older I get, the less of it I have. Seems like life is on fast forward, moving at a pace way faster than I can keep up with, much less stay ahead of. Like in that Adam Sandler movie Click, the good times go by on fast forward and the bad time passes in slow motion.

I've always been aware of time. I've noticed my whole life that when we're having the best times, it's over all too soon. Good times with friends out on the town, suddenly it's 2 am and the clubs are closing. Having a blast on the lake with your pals, then it's sunset and the water fun is over. Enjoying quiet times snuggled on the couch with someone special, one of you relaxes a bit too much and falls asleep.

I've also seen how the very worst things drag on endlessly. Waiting for news on a loved one's medical emergency, the clock seems stopped. Standing in line at the courthouse, waiting to file paperwork to protect someone you care about from an abusive spouse, it takes days It seems. Sitting at the bedside of a sick parent who won't see tomorrow, you wonder why only a hour has passed.

Why does time seem so skewed against us? What is it that God is trying to tell us about the lives we live, when He grabs away the things we cherish in the blink of an eye, yet watches seemingly uninterested from the sidelines as our hearts break? Are we deserving of being denied the longer happiness, yet have earned the extended tears? Do we have some lesson to be learned from having our joys cut short and being forced to see our grief extended into what seems infinity?

Sure, there's a lesson. Richard Bach tells us about it, in Illusions. You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.

Your wish to have move time with someone you love? You get to hold their hand in their final moments. That wish to always be there for your family? Sit in the waiting room as the medical teams work to save a life. The wish to never be lost and alone? You can spend a year in the house you shared, waiting for a sign its okay to move on.

Lesson Fifty Eight: Do you have what it takes to wait things out? Are there times you just can't sit still, and feel the need to do SOMETHING? Think about the days past, and realize what you might've missed by being in a hurry. Just wait out the rough stuff, the good days will show their beauty again soon.

682 to go...